Friendly communities. Beautiful natural surroundings. Fresh, local food. Businesses and nonprofit organizations that care about the place we call home. There’s a lot to love about the Upper Valley!

Vital Communitiesis here to help you get to know the region. Explore the resources below to find ways to connect with your community today.

Explore the Upper Valley

Valley Quest is an award-winning, place-based education program that uses treasure hunts to celebrate community, natural history, cultural sites, stories, and special places. Discover the Upper Valley’s hidden gems on one of our 200+ Quests.

Want to support the local economy when you shop? Check out our Local First Alliance member directory to find local restaurants, retail shops, service providers, and more. Look for the logo and Think Local First!

Think Local First

Eat Valley Farm Fresh

Our online guide is the easiest way to find local food and farm products in the Upper Valley. Simply indicate the product or service you’re looking for and we’ll give you a detailed list of all the local places to find it.

Whether you’re commuting to work or heading to school, we make it easy to figure out how to get there with resources for carpooling, active commuting, and local public transit. You can even calculate the annual cost of your commute.

Get Going!

Sign Up!

Looking for an easy way to keep in touch with your neighbors and what’s happening in your town? Our local community email discussion lists allow members to post and respond to messages about their town. Join your local list to get connected—and if you don’t see it on our list, check with your town about whether there’s something similar for your community.

Lifelong Learning

The Upper Valley is the perfect place to continue your building your education, your professional network, and yourself.

Vital Communities’ program Leadership Upper Valley provides UV residents with a comprehensive knowledge of leadership and volunteer opportunities within the Upper Valley. Classes meet once a month for ten months.

OSHER@Dartmouth is a lifelong learning institute within Dartmouth College dedicated to educating Upper Valley residents with year-round study opportunities.

The Learning Lab (TLL) is a nonprofit organization in Woodstock, Vermont that brings together an array of valuable courses, from art to history to dream analysis, and is open to the entire community.

The Valley News, the news source of the Upper Valley, runs a volunteer section in which new (and continuous) volunteer job opportunities are listed, making applying for some of them as easy as clicking “apply.”

Once a year Hypertherm, in conjunction with the Hypertherm HOPE Foundation, hold a volunteer fair in an effort to encourage Upper Valley residents and Hypertherm employees to volunteer their time with local nonprofits.

Remember to check out our calendar to find even more volunteer opportunities within the Upper Valley.

Vital Communities Program News

Starting or running a farm business can be all-consuming, with tyranny of the urgent monopolizing your days, leaving little time to think about the big picture, review goals, or plan successful management strategies. Every farm ...more

Local and independent businesses bring value to our communities in many ways: preserving community character, creating stable jobs, supporting area organizations and nonprofits, and strengthening our local economy by keeping our dollars in the Upper ...more

Every dollar spent at a local, independent business returns 2-4 times more to be re-spent in the community than a dollar spent at a non-local business. With consumers reporting that they will spend an average ...more

Vital Communities is teaming up with Kearsarge Climate Action to launch a Solarize Kearsarge campaign in spring 2019, following on the tails of the upcoming Weatherize Kearsarge campaign launching in January 2019.
We are seeking proposals ...more

Crossroad Farm is the November Business of the Month and to celebrate they are raffling off all the fixing for a Thanksgiving feast - a Misty Knoll turkey and basket of local veggies!
Visit the their ...more

This summer we had the privilege of working with Ben Fletcher, pictured second from left. Ben brought an incredibly well suited array of skills to Vital Communities and was a boon to the Valley Quest ...more

Join us to celebrate the work we did together in 2018!
Do your chores early, leave the spreadsheets behind, and come share some beer, crepes, and farm chat with fellow farmers as we celebrate the successful 2018 ...more

One thing a group of Millennial cartoonists doesn’t need is help using a smartphone app – especially an intuitive one that shows the real-time location of buses in the rural transit system, Advance Transit. No, ...more

Join Vital Communities and NOFA VT for a
Farmers' Market Roundtable
November 7, 2018 from 4-7 pm
at the Wilder Club & Library in Hartford, Vermont
The roundtable is an opportunity to network, share market successes and challenges, gain ...more

So many small businesses in the Upper Valley are burdened with high energy costs. And not enough time to do anything about it!
We've got some good news for you. A group of Lebanon residents are ...more

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies lists 382 species of bird that occur in Vermont, whether year-long resident or migratory visitor. The VCE’s Vermont Atlas of Life citizen science operation has recorded sightings of 332 of ...more

This year's Aquatic Adventure Super Quest showcases the 5 subbasins that make up the Upper Connecticut River Valley, or, more fondly, the Upper Valley. A subbasin is a term used to describe a watershed within a ...more

On the bright, sunny morning of June 13, Cobb Hill was waking up, and the soon-to-be graduating 2018 Leadership Upper Valley class was just arriving for their final meeting. Before the ceremony at Harpoon Brewery, ...more

Join people around the Upper Valley and nationwide and take the bus Thursday, June 21 for the 13th annual Dump the Pump Day. Stagecoach and Connecticut River Transit ("The Current") will be FARE-FREE. And Advance Transit ...more

On Friday, May 18, the Upper Valley celebrated its newest holiday: Curb the Car Day.
Riffing off National Bike to Work Day, Curb the Car Day embraces all forms of non-drive-alone commutes: biking, walking, taking transit, ...more

Editor's Note: Many thanks to Kevin Peterson, Director of Economic Development for the New Hampshire Community Development Finance Authority, who offered the keynote speech at our May 3 Heroes & Leaders celebration. Read his complete remarks ...more

Every spring, Leadership Upper Valley, a program of Vital Communities, hosts a Heroes & Leaders celebration to recognize individuals who make significant contributions to the greater Upper Valley region. This year, Heroes & Leaders is ...more

Boiler on its last legs? Looking to opt out of fossil fuels? Come learn about today's self-stoking automated wood heat! Opt out of oil with delivery of local wood pellets and whole home wood heating ...more

Join Vital Communities and Resilient Hartford for a community discussion “Visions of a Better World: Social Movements for Transformation.” Millions of people across the U.S. and around the world, stirred by visions of a better world, are daring to rethink and reinvent institutions on local, regional, national and international levels. Join historian/educator Ron Miller, coordinator of the Woodstock Learning Lab, for an overview of these diverse new visions, including movements and concepts such as the “new economy,” agroecology, permaculture, transition towns, food sovereignty, relocalization, reclaiming the commons, Slow Food and Slow Money, and others. Through our conversation we’ll become better acquainted with the concepts, leading thinkers, and origins of these evolutionary trends. Join us for a vital dialogue that digs into the contemporary shifting landscape of our time. Thursday November 8, 5:30–7:30 pm at Vital Communities, White River Junction.

This is a Vital Communities Leadership Upper Valley Class of 2019 event. If you'd like to apply for next year's LUV Class, please contact Rob Schultz at rob@vitalcommunities.org. LUV alumni are welcome at current year classes with advanced notice. Please contact Rob for details.

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Vital Communities is a regional nonprofit organization based in White River Junction, Vermont, that works to engage citizens, organizations, and communities in creating solutions to our region’s challenges.

Information Privacy Policy – 08/2010

Vital Communities respects the privacy of its constituents, donors, and those who support its work as volunteers. Our privacy policy is reviewed annually and posted prominently online at our web site.

We collect name, address, phone, and email contact information from people who express interest in our organization, or who attend our events. We use this information to mail correspondence, newsletters, and other informational products, and solicitations. We do not sell, rent, exchange, or share donor names with any firm or nonprofit organization. We honor any constituent’s wish to not receive mail, emails, or phone communications.

Our online forms for donations and product orders collect credit card information for payment via Network for Good and PayPal, both of which use state-of-the-art encryption. Credit card information is not shared with third parties. Donors are advised in printed solicitations that their contributions can be made anonymously.

Personal information about our constituents is rigorously protected using physical, electronic, and procedural protection mechanisms. To review information, and to make corrections, constituents are asked to contact: Stephanie Carter, Database Manager, by email or at 802.291.9100 x 108.

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VITAL COMMUNITIES

Vital Communities’ work is at the heart of a vibrant Upper Valley region. We bring citizens, organizations, and municipalities together to address issues where an independent voice and regional approach are essential.